picture by Jupiter
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I've been living in England since last Tuesday. The full meaning of this sentence has still not occurred to me. The house we live in feels like home - the work and co-workers feel like actual people but the fact that I have to talk to them in English is still strange. When I hear people talking in the street I still wonder why they talk in English, when I'm watching TV I still look for subtitles, when I'm shopping at the store I want to read the Estonian labels. Understanding that I actually live in another country will probably take some time. But I have mastered many everyday things. I am no longer afraid that I'll get hit by a car when crossing the street because I'm looking the wrong way. I can almost distinguish between the various coins without looking at the numbers. I don't calculate every single price into Estonian money anymore. And, most importantly, I am no longer afraid that people won't understand me or worse - I don't understand them. But fully realising that I live here will probably take some time. In the meantime I will write about everything that has been happening to me as much as possible. Beware! ***** Monday the 13th of September is a day I wouldn't like to relive. The flight itself wasn't particularly stressful and there were no major problems but the emotional aura of the day is something I never want to experience again. Not only was I nervous and snapping at everyone, I was also miserable and weepy and excited and panicking. The send-off at the airport was so sad that I can hardly think about it without crying. Most of the really important people in my life had showed up and I could barely stand there and not bawl like a baby.
The flight was uneventful and in two hours we were taxing along the runway of the Prague Airport. We had 5 hours to spend until the flight to Birmingham so we decided to go and see Prague a little bit. Now would be a good time to give a few helpful hints to people wanting to visit Prague: the second flight was just as uneventful as the first and after two hours of flying we landed at the Birmingham airport. The Roommate was worried that our boss wouldn't come to pick us up but he was there and drove us to our house. I was sitting in front and kept repeating to myself: "It's OK to sit on the left hand side of the car and not steer. You can do it if the wheel is on the RIGHT HAND SIDE!" I couldn't quite convince myself, though. There were also some repairs on the motorway and the speed was marked as 40. I looked outside and thought that: "Hey! We're not doing 40, we're doing about 60." I checked the speed on the dashboard and it said 40. Oh, right... miles per hour, not kilometres! That thought wasn't so comforting when I saw him doing 90 later on. I tried very hard not to calculate what it would be in km/h. Fortunately I was too tired to worry about the possibility of crashing. We reached the house (which is actually pretty nice and as soon as I get a camera I intend to take - and post - many pictures) and The New Boss (TNB) showed us how to work the heating and hot water, which I promptly forgot. The main thing I remember from that night is the surprise I felt when seeing the bathroom. There are no light switches, there are some kind of cords hanging from the ceiling that I have to pull in order to turn the light on or get hot water to take a shower (side note: the last bit doesn't always work). I also remember, and will probably always remember, that there were new beds bought. And, more importantly - there were no duvets or pillows or extra bed stuff around. Fortunately I had brought my sleeping bag but it didn't help much since the house got pretty freezing during the night. The Roommate and I made a pact to start looking for duvets first thing in the morning. ***** The next morning we woke up, ate something and went out to take a walk around town. That's when we found that we had actually ended up in a village and not a town. I may be too harsh here but the fact remains - this is one tiny town! We walked for half and hour and had to turn back since TNB had said that a woman from work would come and take us to the office to introduce us to everyone. She arrived and took us to the office and it turned out that we had walked to the very centre of the town in that half hour and had done that from the very edge of town. Obviously I don't live in a Metropolis. We met everyone and got to ask about all kinds of stuff. The coworker had already showed us how to turn on the heating and how to properly work the shower (you wouldn't think I'd be that stupid and couldn't figure it out, would you? Well, I am!). They were all pretty shocked when they heard about our first night and suggested places to get all the necessary stuff from. Naturally, none of these places were in the tiny town. We went looking for the railway station but got lost and ended up at a coffee-place instead. Since it was already lunchtime we decided to have lunch and ask the locals about the best ways to get into the proper town. They suggested taking the bus, which would be around in half an hour and would be a lot cheaper than the train. We found the bus stop and the bus, got on and arrived right at the door of the shopping centre. There we spent many hours just wondering around and trying not to get lost (didn't work! I've been there a few more times and always ended up thinking 'where am I?' at some point). It wasn't a huge shopping centre, it was just so incredibly confusing. Anyway, after looking at what felt like a hundred duvets and/or pillows, we finally came to a decision and bought some, along with some other necessities like groceries. Now all we had to do was to get back to the home town. Getting on the bus carrying all that stuff wasn't very easy but somehow we managed to do that and even get on the right bus (I'm ashamed to admit that I almost expected to get lost). Fortunately there was a bus stop very near our house so we didn't have to walk around town like camels loaded with the multiple parcels we left the shopping centre with. Coming back to our now-warm house carrying the very necessary stuff I felt like this place could feel like home - after some extensive cleaning. We didn't start cleaning, though. Instead we made dinner, ate that while trying to get used to the fact that the English-speaking TV programs have no subtitles and then went to bed. It was almost 11 Estonian time, after all.
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